In celebration of Constitution Day, the National Constitution Center explores the lives and legacies of John Dickinson, Gouverneur Morris, Roger Sherman, and James Wilson, four “forgotten founders” who played critical roles in drafting the Constitution, shaping the structure of the new government, and securing the document’s ratification. Carol Berkin, author of the National Constitution Center’s definitive short biographies of all 56 signers; Jane E. Calvert, author of Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson; Scott S. Greenberger, author of The Forsaken Founder: Gouverneur Morris, the Unsung Patriot Who Wrote the Constitution, Stood Up to Slavery, and Survived the Reign of Terror; and Jesse Wegman, author of The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People’s Constitution, discuss how these remarkable founders shaped the Constitution and why their ideas continue to resonate in American civic life today. Julie Silverbrook, chief content and learning officer at the National Constitution Center, moderates.
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Participants
Carol Berkin is Presidential Professor of History, Emerita, of Baruch College and The Graduate Center, CUNY. She has written extensively on the creation of the Constitution and the politics of the early Republic. She is the author of many acclaimed books, including Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence, A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution, The Bill of Rights: The Struggle to Secure America’s Liberties, and most recently, A Sovereign People: The Crisis of the 1790s and the Birth of American Nationalism. Berkin also authored the National Constitution Center’s definitive short biographies of all 89 signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Jane E. Calvert has taught at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the University of Kentucky, and Yale University and is currently director and chief editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project. Her work, which has been supported by leading research institutions as well as federal agencies, focuses on the intersection of theology and political theory in the Colonial and Founding Eras. She is the author of numerous books, including Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson and Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson.
Scott S. Greenberger is the executive editor of Stateline, where he leads a team of journalists who report on state policy trends across the country. He was a newspaper reporter for 12years, first at the Austin American-Statesman and then at the Boston Globe, and has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Glamour, Washington Monthly, Moment magazine, and Washington City Paper. He is coauthor of Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis and author of The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur. His latest book is The Forsaken Founder: Gouverneur Morris, the Unsung Patriot Who Wrote the Constitution, Stood Up to Slavery, and Survived the Reign of Terror.
Jesse Wegman is a senior fellow in the Office of the President at the Brennan Center. He works with the Kohlberg Center on the U.S. Supreme Court, the Future of the Constitution Advisory Committee, and Brennan Center Ventures on electoral policy and democracy reform. From 2013 through 2025, Wegman was a member of the New York Times editorial board, where he wrote more than 1,000 editorials and signed pieces on law and politics, the Supreme Court, democracy, and the rule of law. He is the author of The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People’s Constitution.
Julie Silverbrook is chief content and learning officer at the National Constitution Center, where she leads the strategy, development, and delivery of the Center’s content, public programs, and educational initiatives, advancing its mission of nonpartisan constitutional education and civil dialogue. She oversees the creation of public-facing constitutional content and works to ensure the Center’s programs, scholarly engagement, and educational resources operate as a coordinated national strategy serving students, educators, families, and lifelong learners across the country.
Additional Resources
- Carol Berkin, Signers’ Biographies, National Constitution Center
- Jane E. Calvert, Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson (2024)
- Scott S. Greenberger, The Forsaken Founder: Gouverneur Morris, the Unsung Patriot Who Wrote the Constitution, Stood Up to Slavery, and Survived the Reign of Terror (2026)
- Jesse Wegman, The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution (2026)
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